P/E ratio -- The price-to-earnings ratio is the most widely cited valuation metric, and for good reason. It's an easy way to compare similar businesses. Simply divide a company's current share price by its last 12 months' worth of earnings. You can also use the projected earnings over the next 12 months to calculate the forward P/E ratio. The key point to know is that P/E ratios are most useful when comparing businesses in the same industry -- such as comparing ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX).
Whilst some day traders are tuned in every day from 09:30 to 16:30 EST (for the U.S stock market), many trade for just a 2-3 hour window instead. As a beginner especially this will prevent you making careless mistakes as your brain drops down a couple of gears when your concentration wanes. The hours you’ll want to focus your attention on are as follows:
Nerd tip: If you're tempted to open a brokerage account but need more advice on choosing the right one, see our 2019 roundup of the best brokers for stock investors. It compares today's top online brokerages across all the metrics that matter most to investors: fees, investment selection, minimum balances to open and investor tools and resources. Read: Best online brokers for stock investors »

If you are literally just getting started, the services offered by most major stockbrokers (information here) as a part of their trading account services will be a good place to start (and free). Firms such as Trade King, eTrade, Charles Schwab and Ameritrade provide a range of online tools. These will give you a feel for how portfolio management software works without having to pay extra to learn. However, these services typically offer no advice (known as execution only), which means that a separate service will be required for information analysis.

A $50 stock can be more expensive than an $800 stock because the share price means nothing on its own. The relationship of price-to-earnings and net assets is what determines if a stock is over- or under-valued. Companies can keep prices artificially high by never conducting a stock split, yet without having the underlying foundational support. Make no assumptions based on price alone.
The solution to both is investing in stock index funds and ETFs. While mutual funds might require a $1,000 minimum or more, index fund minimums tend to be lower (and ETFs are purchased for a share price that could be lower still). Two brokers, Fidelity and Charles Schwab, offer index funds with no minimum at all. Index funds also cure the diversification issue because they hold many different stocks within a single fund.
3. Get an education. Warren Buffett has suggested in the past that every investor should be able to understand basic accountancy principles, an annual report and stock market history. You probably do not need to become an accountant, but being able to understand the scoring system of the game can only help. There are thousands of books about investing and trading - you don't need to read them all, but you probably ought to read a few to enhance your theoretical knowledge.
An essential beginners tip is to practice with a demo account first. They are usually funded with simulated money and they’ll offer you a safe space to make mistakes and develop your strategies. They are also a fantastic place to get familiar with platforms, market conditions, and technical analysis. They’re free and easy to use. What have you got to lose?

Thirty-two percent of Americans who were invested in the stock market during at least one of the last five financial downturns pulled some or all of their money out of the market. That’s according to a NerdWallet-commissioned survey, which was conducted online by The Harris Poll of more than 2,000 U.S. adults, among whom over 700 were invested in the stock market during at least one of the past five financial downturns, in June 2018. The survey also found that 28% of Americans would not keep their money in the stock market if there were a crash today.

If you are literally just getting started, the services offered by most major stockbrokers (information here) as a part of their trading account services will be a good place to start (and free). Firms such as Trade King, eTrade, Charles Schwab and Ameritrade provide a range of online tools. These will give you a feel for how portfolio management software works without having to pay extra to learn. However, these services typically offer no advice (known as execution only), which means that a separate service will be required for information analysis.
In most cases, your broker will charge a commission every time that you trade stock, either through buying or selling. Trading fees range from the low end of $2 per trade but can be as high as $10 for some discount brokers. Some brokers charge no trade commissions at all, but they make up for it in other ways. There are no charitable organizations running brokerage services.
Investing is a way to set aside money while you are busy with life and have that money work for you so that you can fully reap the rewards of your labor in the future. Investing is a means to a happier ending. Legendary investor Warren Buffett defines investing as "… the process of laying out money now to receive more money in the future."﻿﻿ The goal of investing is to put your money to work in one or more types of investment vehicles in the hopes of growing your money over time.
To be perfectly clear, knowing how to identify great businesses is more important than being able to identify cheap stocks for beginners. A great business will typically be a good long-term performer, even if you buy in at a bit of an expensive valuation. On the other hand, a bad business that you invest in at a cheap valuation will seldom work out well.
PEG ratio -- Companies grow at different rates, and failure to take this into account is one of the key shortcomings of the P/E ratio. The price-to-earnings-growth ratio, or PEG ratio, levels the playing field. Simply divide the company's P/E ratio by its projected earnings growth rate. For example, a company with a P/E of 30 and a 15% expected growth rate would have a PEG ratio of 2.0. Like the P/E ratio, the PEG ratio is most useful for comparing companies in the same industry but with different growth rates.
3. Get an education. Warren Buffett has suggested in the past that every investor should be able to understand basic accountancy principles, an annual report and stock market history. You probably do not need to become an accountant, but being able to understand the scoring system of the game can only help. There are thousands of books about investing and trading - you don't need to read them all, but you probably ought to read a few to enhance your theoretical knowledge.

By knowing how much capital you will need and the future point in time when you will need it, you can calculate how much you should invest and what kind of return on your investment will be needed to produce the desired result. To estimate how much capital you are likely to need for retirement or future college expenses, use one of the free financial calculators available over the Internet.